ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how and why a pragmatic focus on inquiry leads to rethinking the goal of epistemology. It explains how taking seriously a Pragmatic perspective on the nature of inquiry can be deployed in dealing with epistemic puzzles that arise in the context of statements of probability and probabilistic inference. The book argues that pictorial representations, too, can contribute to the way the world is taken to be. It also argues that adopting the Pragmatic view of scientific inquiry can reorient accounts of the status of ethical discourse. The book discusses a Pragmatic approach to metaethics and also explores Dewey’s account of the role construction plays in ethical inquiry. It shows that a Pragmatic treatment of perception suggests one should adopt a pluralist position with respect physical and phenomenal accounts of perceptual experience.
